


Forever, Forever

by Yarpfish



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Joe/Yusuf POV, Love Languages, M/M, new to this fandom abs no idea what the ship name are yet, this is all just softness and devotion and knowing someone so well that you don't need to speak, will add later - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-28
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:08:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25579372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yarpfish/pseuds/Yarpfish
Summary: It was the drowning dream again.At least, that’s what he would say.They didn’t need to know that sometimes instead of a coffin in the water, his dreams were of battlefields and dusty heat, where that bastard was there again.--Joe has nightmares he won't admit to.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 2
Kudos: 97





	Forever, Forever

It was the drowning dream again.

At least, that’s what he would say. 

They didn’t need to know that sometimes instead of a coffin in the water, his dreams were of battlefields and dusty heat, where **_that bastard_ ** was there again. Smirking, as though he knew how irritated it made him that he **_wouldn’t stay dead_ ** . He never seemed to be annoyed. Oh, the Italian would kill him if given half the chance but he seemed to find the whole thing like a game. 

Perhaps it was, Yusuf thought, as he won this round and drove a knife into the crusader’s side. 

The guilt that he harboured in the morning. 

Or, the other times where he seemed to be stuck in a moment forever. Seeing him dead on the ground, the moment drawing out, and it was taking him too long to gasp and suck in fresh air into bloodied and frozen lungs. The fear, that aching fear, that clawed up into his heart every time like thorns replaced by barbed wire, that this time, it was it, this time, they wouldn’t be lucky.  **_Come back to me_ ** he’d beg silently, never daring to say it aloud as though his desperation would make it more real and more dangerous. Relief so strong it felt like nausea when Nicky grasped his arm again in a wordless  **_hello_ ** , desperate for contact.

But Nicky always knew. 

When the four of them were drowning, he would stay still, tense and bow tight in his arms. A frown would be creasing his forehead, he knew, even if he couldn’t see it from here. When they were all drowning, Joe would keep him safe, arms tight and close and keeping them both  **_whole._ ** .

When he was caught in memories, though, Nicky would shift. Turn **_away_** from the entrance and into his embrace. His hand would move to slip under the bottom of his shirt to rest on the small of his back so that the warmth of his palm radiated down into his spine and he would lean forward so his forehead rested on his neck. He would make himself vulnerable to show Joe how safe he was. Hands nowhere near a sword or a gun because there was no need for them to be. 

It was not so much a kiss but the light movement of lips against his skin, planting a delicate suggestion into his shoulder that cut into him far deeper than any less subtle show of affection could move him to. 

It was not love. It was not a burning passion or consuming lust. It was not the romance that he spoke into existence with his fine speeches, trying and failing to explain what a thousand years of sentiment felt like, what it was to look into deep green eyes and be lost for words, every day. It was more complex, more simple and utterly beyond love. In a world of certainty that could be taken from them at any moment, that they had all the time in the world until it ran out, Nicky turned away from danger and held him close. His lips were on his skin, breathing him in like it was the only thing keeping him alive, his kiss whispering, so loudly that it shook his bones, 

“I’m here, I’m here.”


End file.
